S1 Ep 4. The Power of Taking Risks

Nite Nite Nurse Podcast Show Notes
Season 1 Episode 4

Today’s story is meant to help you wind down and relax, so you can hopefully get more and better sleep.

This is the story of Heather, a young midwife who is on her path to experiencing the wonderful things that can come when we make the effort to move, act, and take risks even if we’re feeling a bit scared.

Heather was a young woman who had grown up in the calm suburbs. She had finished college recently, and after that, she had been presented with a job opportunity that required her to move to the city. There, she would be working as a certified nurse midwife in one of the area’s main hospitals.

Heather knew that this change meant that she would be leading a very different life from what she was used to. But it also represented a wonderful opportunity for her to learn and become an excellent nurse, which was something that she aspired to deeply. After all, she would be working in a very modern hospital in the center of a large city.

The suburbs and the quiet life that they offered was something that Heather really enjoyed and appreciated. She had been secretly hoping to get a really good job close to her home. Instead, she had received this new and unexpected opportunity that actually seemed a bit daunting to her.

She was scared of losing the things that she loved about her home, as well as of the uncertainty of not knowing how she would feel in the city and how things would work there. Nonetheless, there was a soft and calming whisper inside Heather. This little voice told her that she would never know what the real results would be, unless she tried. The inner voice gradually became more sensible and convincing. It reminded her that even if she couldn’t see it right then, change itself harbored a great deal of power; and sometimes, taking the risk of walking into uncertain terrain despite the fear, could bear amazing fruit, fruit that would never have existed otherwise.

After some days of thinking things through, Heather decided that she didn’t want to miss this chance. She wanted to be able to make that big effort that the situation required.

A couple of days later, Heather had gathered enough courage. She didn’t feel perfectly ready, not at all. But she did feel completely determined. Heather took a very big leap of faith and got into the train that would take her to the city.

All throughout her journey, she tried to focus on believing that sometimes, something really wonderful awaits beyond the walls of the unknown. And to Heather’s relief, this started to become apparent as soon as she arrived at her destination and stepped inside her new place.

After having reached her floor in the apartment building, Heather looked around to find the unit that belonged to her. She quickly found the door that was marked with the number thirty-seven. In Heather’s eyes, this was an ordinary and simple looking wooden door. What she didn’t know is that going through that door would change her life in beautiful and powerful ways.

Heather took her key out and inserted it into the keyhole. Taking a hopeful deep breath in, she started to turn the key slowly until she could feel that the door had been unlocked. With a combination of curiosity and subtle excitement, Heather gently pushed the door. This gradually revealed a space that felt very different from what she had been expecting. Heather stepped inside feeling grateful, because this wasn’t just any small apartment, it was a magical and cozy space that felt like it had been especially designed for her.

Although the apartment was right in the middle of the city, it turned out that it wasn’t noisy. The owners had taken the time to carefully create a quiet and comfortable environment.

Tall wooden bookcases filled with multiple books adorned the walls that faced the neighboring apartments. The book covers were arranged by color, creating a surreal and stunning rainbow effect every time you looked at one of the bookcases.

The floor was completely covered by a thick but soft carpet. It had a light gray color that matched the sandy brown color of the bookcases’ wood perfectly. The carpet was extremely comfortable to walk on. Heather felt like she was floating with every step she took.

These two elements alone, the rainbow bookshelves and the plush carpet, made Heather feel like she was wrapped in the warm embrace of a dreamy fairy tale land. In addition, both were great ways of absorbing noise and contributing to the serene environment.

The living room space was beautifully arranged with a set of beige-colored upholstered furniture. Two small couches and a medium sized sofa were accompanied by a round wooden coffee table at the center. This looked simple and elegant at the same time. The upholstery also helped to absorb any incoming noise.

The spaces between the couches and the sofa had been decorated with planters made of white ceramic. Light green plants grew in these, looking healthy and alive. The space remained elegant, but the addition of natural plants made it feel cozy as well.

Something that caught Heather’s eye quickly too was how well the different colors worked together. The whites and greens looked really nice combined with the beige and the dark brown color of the coffee table. Heather also observed how the owners’ choice of sticking mostly to light colors enhanced the living room space by making it look and feel larger than it was. She was really happy with how this area of the apartment looked.

A couple of feet away was the kitchen area. It had a clean design and was ordered very neatly. A single wooden cabinet housed a small number of appliances, but Heather was grateful to see that all her cooking and reheating necessities were covered.

The cabinet was painted white, while all the appliances had a silver color. There were a couple of cabinet doors with clear glass panes, each of them containing plates and drinking glasses. Finally, the lower part of the cabinet had two wooden drawers. The cutlery was stored inside the first one. The knives, forks and spoons looked perfectly clean, and like new.

The second drawer was empty and meant to provide tenants with space to store anything else that belonged in the kitchen. Heather really liked to bake desserts, so she was very pleased to see that she would have a proper space to store her special baking molds and utensils. As for the rest of her baking kitchenware, such as her beloved mixer, she would be able to store it behind a couple of solid doors below the sink.

The kitchen area included a small rectangular breakfast bar with two chairs. The top was made of a tan-colored wood-like composite that offered a slightly glossy finish. Black and sturdy metal legs supported the whole structure. This same style and build quality had been used for the chairs.

At the center of the table stood a white ceramic planter with light green leaves emerging from it. This plant was similar to the ones in the living room. It looked healthy, and it filled the space with life. The main difference was that it was smaller since it needed to be able to fit on the table without taking up too much space.

Heather took a moment to observe this plant further. She started contemplating the details in the stem and leaves. It was only then that she noticed just how many different shades of green were found in that seemingly ordinary little plant.

Vivid, light-green tones covered the majority of the area of a leaf, but there were also brighter round spots sprinkled around the surface. The veins were a bit thick, with the central one running from the bottom of a leaf towards the top, and the secondary veins branching out from the center one towards the sides. They etched the leaves’ surfaces with dark green tracks just like fresh rivers flowing abundantly through a brightly foliaged forest.

Without her noticing it, Heather’s breath had been slowing down in a gradual manner from the moment that she had started to carefully watch the plant. She felt a wave of relaxation washing over her body. Heather closed her eyes and smiled as she kept breathing slowly. She would have never imagined that a single little plant would be able to make her feel so lightweight and calm.

After this enlightening experience, Heather concluded with certainty that this small leafy element was the perfect centerpiece for the kitchen space.

Overall, the combined kitchen and dining room area featured a very simple, almost minimalist design; but just like the living room space, it managed to evoke elegance while also providing a cozy environment.

Heather walked back to the center of the apartment. She stood still for a moment. Then, she slowly took a good look around. From that perspective, it became so easy for her to appreciate how cohesive and functional the whole apartment’s design was. It blended a lot of wooden elements together with natural plants, giving Heather the sense that she was surrounded by lush trees.

At the same time, the touches of glass and metal that were sprinkled around provided the whole environment with a bit a of a sleek and modern look.

In addition, all the different materials that the owners had chosen worked together to absorb the outside noise and create a space that was surprisingly quiet.

Heather started to feel like her new place offered her a perfect balance between her old home and what she hoped to find in her new home.

The feeling of being surrounded by trees and serenity reminded her of her house in the suburbs, and of the usual peace and quiet that prevailed there. The apartment managed to transport Heather to her favorite cozy clearing in the woods near her house. She could almost hear the birds singing in different and yet beautifully harmonious tunes. All this made her feel safe and relaxed.

On the other hand, the modest elegance and modernity that the place exuded made Heather think about the future. She thought about her dreams for the future, be it the distant one or the not-so-distant one.

Heather wanted to become a great midwife in every sense. She wanted to work hard and help as many people as she could, but she also wanted to be kind, warm and patient as she did this. She wished to become more knowledgeable and skillful with every passing day too. She wanted to learn about the most effective ways to help those around her, and she knew that working in one of the main hospitals in a large city would provide her with valuable experience. A hospital like that one would very likely give her the opportunity to learn and practice the kinds of things needed for her to become the professional that she dreamed of being.

It was then that Heather realized that the prize for having been courageous was already starting to reveal itself. She would be living in an apartment that felt almost as comforting as her home back in the suburbs. Standing there in the middle of this particular space, she didn’t feel like she had lost anything. On the contrary, she felt like she had won.

The fact that working at the city’s hospital was no longer just a probability, but a reality now was something that filled Heather with hope; hope that she was one step closer on her journey to reaching her dreams and becoming the person that she wanted to be. And hope, just like change, was a powerful engine.

The realization of all this made Heather feel so grateful for having been able to develop the courage to walk and act, despite her fears. She was now feeling a combination of empowerment and calmness. This made Heather feel especially ready to see the space that she cared about the most in the whole apartment: her bedroom.

She walked slowly towards the door that was at the end of the aisle between the living room area and the kitchen and dining space. She looked at the door and noticed that its color matched the dark brown one of the coffee table. She was delighted to see this since just looking at it made her think of drinking hot chocolate, her favorite. This instantly sent a wave of warmth through Heather’s body, making her feel even more relaxed and optimistic about what she would find on the other side of the rich chocolate-colored door.

Opening the door revealed a bedroom that was neatly organized, something that made it feel very spacious. Its design resembled what was already on display in the other areas of the apartment: a gracefully picked combination of colors, textures and elements arranged in such a way that resulted in a simple, cozy and elegant environment. Heather was pleased to see that the same tasteful type of interior design was spread across the whole apartment.

But there was one very important thing that could only be found in the bedroom: a window. It was large and perfectly placed. It allowed Heather to see the outside world and connect with it; at the same time, it didn’t rob her of her privacy, peace and quiet. This was again thanks to the owners of the apartment who had been careful enough to soundproof the windows. By using noise-reducing window inserts and curtains, they had provided Heather with a very flexible environment. She could keep her window open when she wanted to listen to the lively sounds of the city, for example. And whenever she felt like resting or like she wanted to enjoy the embrace of serenity, she could simply close the window and curtains.

As Heather looked out the window, she started noticing just how many different things surrounded her. The tall skyscrapers were the first to catch her eye. They were so tall that it looked like they were about to touch the sky. This made Heather feel like she herself was touching the clouds with her own fingertips. She smiled as she imagined herself poking the fluffy formations as if they were soft and delicious cotton candy.

That image ended up making Heather a bit hungry. As her gaze slowly moved downwards, shifting her focus to the streets around her building, her eyes were met by a multitude of restaurants and food stands. Spaces of all sorts of styles and sizes offered a great diversity of tastes. And the smaller street trucks and stands complemented the restaurants with cuisine from lesser-known countries by blending their unique twists on common recipes.

The truth was that this city had something to please and make any hungry belly happy. With food offerings from almost every continent in the world, Heather knew that coming to the city would also mark the start of a gastronomic cultural adventure for her. Just having her window open let all the different culinary aromas enter her apartment. A wonderful combination of sweet, fruity, citric, herbal, and smoky scents entered her nostrils.

Heather gave herself a minute to enjoy this pleasant sensory experience. She did this by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in. It felt like her whole body was being invigorated by the numerous delicious scents. She held her breath for a couple of seconds and then she released the air slowly. Heather repeated this a couple of times, feeling more and more refreshed and relaxed with every inhalation and exhalation. Heather smiled as she appreciated this moment. It even occurred to her that she could turn this practice into a calming and restorative morning ritual.

After opening her eyes again, Heather continued to look out the window. Besides all the wonderful scents and the amazing variety of styles when it came to the different food spots, there was an even bigger picture that caught Heather’s attention. She was surrounded by a great number of people.

Some of them were walking quickly across the streets; others moved at a more leisurely pace. The different eating places were also filled or surrounded by people who were sitting down calmly as they enjoyed their meals.

There were babies, children, teenagers, as well as men and women of all ages. Some had lighter skin tones while others had darker ones. There was no dress code here. Heather’s eyes were met by all sorts of clothing styles: these ranged from colorful and casual to formal and fashionable.

Heather was mesmerized at all the diversity that she could see around her. There was diversity in food, in ethnicities, in clothing choices, and everything was moving in harmony, like a beautifully created choreography in which everyone was participating freely.
This was a degree of diversity that Heather had never experienced in her life before. For some reason, watching this was making her heart feel warm and fuzzy. What was it about this that was so special for Heather?

It was almost instantly that four little letters came floating into Heather’s mind. They stopped right at the center, glowing in different colors. These letters spelled a short and simple four-lettered word, but to Heather, this word meant everything. And this word was “life”.

All the different people from all over the world, the different faces and places, the different sounds and scents, all of it made the city feel so full of life. And life was exactly what Heather wanted to give back to the world. That was why she had decided to become a midwife.

Seeing life happening with so much diversity and beauty had resonated with Heather’s greatest passion. It had rekindled her love for being a midwife. Heather had the privilege of helping deliver new lives into the world, and looking at what their future could be just made her feel even more motivated. Heather wanted to become an excellent nurse. That was true. But now she was also excited to become the best midwife she could be. This reawakening inside of her showed her yet another great gift of having had the courage to come to the city.

Heather felt profoundly grateful for feeling so motivated and for having the opportunity of being right where she was. Her heart was full and warm, and her mind was quiet and calm.

It was already dark and Heather’s day had been wonderful, but she had to admit that she was definitely tired. Heather had a quick dinner and went straight to bed. Without even noticing it, she quickly drifted off into a relaxing and comfortable sleep.

Narrator: Dr. Scharmaine Lawson

Writer: Stephanie Chamberlain

Cover artist: Eka Mahardika